THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



tween a shark and a porpoise in the Firth of Clyde, end- 

 ing in the death of the porpoise after the shark had bitten 

 off its tail. Such fights are certainly not common around 

 British coasts. 



Sharks, rays and skates appeared in various places 

 during ensuing weeks, until on 25th July a large sting 

 ray weighing over forty pounds was caught in the West 

 End bathing pool, West Park, Jersey, after killing a 

 young man named Gould. 



Only the day before a large sting ray weighing slightly 

 less — thirty-six pounds — was captured and killed by boys 

 fishing in the Solent oflf Yarmouth. They were fortunate 

 in their avoidance of the ray's barbed weapon. 



Around this time, a member of the crew of the Royal 

 Sovereign lightship, seven miles off Eastbourne, angling 

 for congers, hooked a shark of the man-eating variety. 

 He and other men hauled it aboard the lightship, after 

 it had fought fiercely in the water. A man had been 

 bitten by a shark near Weymouth, some time before 

 this, without serious injury, and a ten-foot hammerhead 

 had been caught in Carmarthen Bay. 



Bathers around Britain were alarmed throughout the 

 1925 summer by the appearance of sharks and stinging 

 rays in numerous places. As late as October that year 

 a huge shark was caught oflf Lyme Regis, Dorset, by 

 some fishermen in a boat about a mile from shore. The 

 two men had a desperate struggle with the man-killer 

 before they were able to dispatch it and haul it into their 

 boat. A little later the catch of a drifter which reached 

 Ramsgate — the vessel had been fishing for herrings — 

 included no fewer than thirty sharks, some of them of 

 considerable size. So it went on through the summers of 

 1926, 1927 and 1928. On the South Wales coast the 1927 

 summer was a record one for sharks — six were caught at 

 Porthcawl, fourteen in Swansea Bay, and twelve in 

 Carmarthen Bay. 



During these years sharks were killing numbers of 



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